Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 September 1942 — Page 9

Hoosier Vagabond

"LONDON, Sept. 15.—Unless he goes exploring into _. the old city or along the East End docks, the aver- - age American soldier visiting London is disappointed 4 in the bomb damage. That is because it has been so : Shoroughly cleaned up.' Thousands upon thousands of separate buildings in London were demolished in the blitz. But now the rubble has been carted away, crumbling © walls + pulled down, sidewalks patched up with concrete—and what you see is an empty spot that” might always have been an empty spot. Consequently it loses its reality, During the blitz, Americans by the thousands said they wanted to come to England the minute the war was over to see what the bomb damage looked like, Now they are here by the thousand, looking at it, but it somehow doesn’t seem impressive or even real. “Of course there are certain spots that make you stand ‘and stare in a shocked, grave silence. That . vast unbelievable space, for instance, in the heart of the city, which the Germans tried to burn down the night of Dec. 29, 1940, : The vacant space is simply so big you can’t help but feel the shock. And yet it, too, has been weath- - ered and softened by a year and a half of time, and, . @s: one person said, it looks like an old Grecian ruin on display to tourists.

Take Stone's Chop House

IT IS ONLY THE morning after—when the streets are full of broken glass, and bricks tumble out over the sidewalks like landslides, and broken walls sag v and lean, and beds hang from third-story ledges, and . dolls lie pitifully admist the broken furniture—that you ‘can fully realize what bombing is like. There was one: restaurant that was close to my heart. During the winter of the blitz a friend named : Dinty Moore and I used to eat once or twice a week y ot Stone's Chop House, if off Leicester Square.

darkish hall, and came out into an old Dickens-like room, with carpet on the floor and a lovely fire going in the grate. Always we sat in front of the fire and warmed ourselves while waiting for our dinner. The waiter was a kindly old fellow dressed up in an Alpine costume, with green knee pants and a

fancy Swiss vest. He was very attentive and prided

himself on his remarkable memory. I had to eat apple tart for, desert every time I wert there, just because the old fellow remembered that I ordered it on my first visit. It was a very quiet place. We were there the night my mother died in Ametica. I ate there the night before I left London. |.

Only an Old Sentiment Left

YESTERDAY, IN BRIGHT sunshine, I took a |

oll down through Leicester Square and on beyond, . king for what I didn’t really want to see. For I

had heard about it while still back in America. It|

happened after I left here. Stone’s had a direct hit. Now it is only a hole in the ground, indistinguishable from hundreds of other bomb holes in London. The rubble is all cleared out and the sides of the hole are gray and weathered by rain. An unpainted picket fence has been built across the hole, so you won't fall off the sidewalk into it. - 1 leaned on the picket fence and looked into the great hole for a long time. Nothing was left at all,

. except a part of the old grate hanging onto the rear

bank. The grate we used to sit in front of. Passersby stared at me, as though I were a tourist. Funny how one hole in the ground—so far away from my own home-—could mean so much. The passersby couldn’t see the way I felt. It would be hard to tell anybody, there im the bright sunshine of a peaceful day. They say there were no survivors. Only an .old sentiment is left, and a part of a grate. The old fellow in the green pants. Nice old fellow. His hole in the ground. And mine too.

Inside. Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

tig A LOT oF PEOPLE, including Mrs. Naomi W. + Outeault, ‘were pretty provoked yesterday because so many families apparently couldn't be bothered about co-operating in the tin can collection. It was particularly noticeable on the so called “better neighborhood”

streets. For- instance, on ‘some sections of Washington blvd., Mrs.

Outcault noticed 10 or 15 unpro--

cessed cans in most every trash basket. She was tempted to go up and ring’ a few door. bells— but didn’t. Personally; we wish she had. . . . From various sections of: the city—particularly the far north side—we hear people asking what makes that roaring or throbbing sound — something like heavy diesel engines pumping away in the distance. It comes and goes. Sometimes you can hear it on the front porch and can’t on the back porch. Most inquirers agree it’s most noticeable on cloudy days. Some think it might be the roar of engines on the test line at { Allison’s—the noise being bounced along by the low ' hanging clouds. Personally, we don’t know.

Just Flat on Bottom

TRAFFIC WAS HEAVY on the south side of Washington st. Spaenvwone. car in the lane of traffic stopped. driver got out and looked at one of his tires. It was very flat. Other cars honked and:raced their motors, then began trying to thread their way between his car and the curb, The motorist ‘valmly opened the trunk, got out one of those old ‘ fashioned pumps and, blandly ignoring the other cars, ‘pumped for about 15 minutes. A fair sized crowd gathered on.the sidewalk to watch and cheer him on. When he had enough air in the tire, and not a ‘moment before, he put the pump away and drove away. . . . Lieut. Edward Green, the former state Senatar, was back in town. over the week-end. He's

Washington

WASHINGTON, Sept. 15.—Writing about India is ticklish business now. Washington and London are not eye to eye and Prime Minister Churchill has made it. clear in his statement to Commons that he proposes no further efiort to reach an agreement ‘with the Gandhi movement. * The Churchill statement prac“tically stymies American officials in bringing up this question again, especially in view. of their failure in the past to make any headway. They are left frustrated and unhappy. American troops are in India. The government is considering a program of assisting in enlarging war production in India as recommended by the recent American technical mission headed by Dr. Matis} PF, Grady. That would involve diversion of American war production equipment and some. technical assistance. Anything that may be done would be predicated on the belief that India is of enormous importance to the unifed nations. Otherwise American troops would not be there now. The reasons are obvious. China. can be supplied at present only through India, If we ever hope to drive the Japs out of Burma, "it must be done from India. The ultimate campaigh against-* Japan undoubtedly would include action

through India and China, no matter from ‘what

other directions we also attacked.

I ts a Vital Area

INDIA, AS IS CLEAR from the map, has a central location so that whoever controls it controls access to China and overlooks supply routes into the + Middle East and Russia. Besides, India is an enormous country rich in raw materials and labor supply. India supplies certain critical ‘materials to the united nations. “In other words, India is a British colonial problem

My Day

; NEW YORK cITY, Monday. —Yesterday we had * supper with ‘Secretary and Mrs. Morgenthau, and then Miss Thompson and I took the evening train to New York city. Today I am going by train to Westbrook, Conn, to spend a few hours: with my old friends, Miss Elizabeth Read and Miss: Esther Lape. Even two days in the country makes one aware of rural probE lems. I am very much concerned - about the shortage of labor which - exists on all the farms around the -neighborhood, particularly in the apple-growing' sections. - The employment offices do not seem to ‘have been very successful in choos- ! ing young -people with a sense of #8 responsibility for their jobs and ~ for the war situation. 1 hope iat. more Sonscious of the nesas which

stationed at the: .Great Lakes: naval training station— in public relations. .

The Phoney Sleuth

WE'RE SCOOPED AGAIN by a house organ. This time it’s by the Indiana Telephone News, with ‘an item on a bit of detective work by E. H, Kahlo, of Indiana Bell's information department. Mr, Kahlo deposited his favorite panama hat—he’d hdd it five or six years and wouldn’t part with it. for the world =~on & hook in a restaurant. When he went to look for it, it was gone. In its place was a substitute with the initials C. S. G. on the band. Most people would have been stumped, but not Mr.: Kahlo, to the G's in the telephone directory; began looking

for people there with the initials C. 8. G. On his].

second call, he got an elderly man’ who said he'd noticed that the hat he brought home had seemed a bit small. It was Mr. Kahlo’s hat. An exchange

was arranged in no time. Smart people, these Bell

Telephoners.

Just a Chinese Custom

A COMMUNITY FUND worker got an impromptu lesson in Chinese customs by: long distance the other day. He was phoning New York to arrange for a speech before the fund's Employees Fellowship by a Chinese—Liu Liang Mo. He referred to the speaker as Mr. Mo. “I beg pardon,” said the voice at the other end, “but don’t you mean Mr. Liu?” And then the ' voice explained that Chinese “first names are written last and last names first. Confusing as all getout, isn’t it. . . , There's a sign in the Murphy 5 and 10, on the book counter, reading: “Life of General MacAuther—$1,35.” . While Jeanette MacDonald was raising money for the Army Emergency Relief, Inc, Sunday evening at Cadle Tabernacle by “selling” encores. E. Howard Cadle, the evangelist, went to the A. E. R. representative, we hear, and said: “Let me get out there on the stage and Ill raise $10,000 for you.” His offer wasn't taken up. The bidding actually raised just $1100.

By Raymond Chater

and also a united nations war problem. Americans who were in the Burma campaign saw at first hand how the indifference and treachery of the Burmese hampered the allies. The concern now is whether Americans in India will be compelled to fight the Japs against an embittered Indian population. Gandhi and ‘the congress party crowd: are cantankerous and exasperating to deal with, Gandhi's present campaign amounts in effect if not in intention to. a stab in the back for the allies. Few here question the need of the British assert-

"ing their authority in India In face of Gandhi's

challenge. ' You do hear the question whether it will be enough to Tepress the challenge and stand on that.

Still Just Scraps of Paper

THE WHIPPING POST is being used, and .the

“uesion is whether after the lashing you then let

it at that and consider that everything is all Nghe That is certainly not the kind of relationship that fits my picture of what our side is like. We have to lick the Japs and Hitler, but is this kind of thing that is going to be insisted upon as a byproduct?

‘Temporarily we have tried to sidestep that undesired by-product by issuing orders to American troops in India not to participate in any internal trouble. - Orders have been issued to the American military forces in India to remember that they are there to fight the axis and to help China. During disorders American troops are confined to quarters. As Edgar Snow reports in his Saturday Evening Post article ‘cabled from India this week, we can’t expect to fight both the Japs and the Indians at the same tine. : The Eritish and ourseives have done a lot of talking about a free world and some scraps of paper have been signed. They still remain scraps of paper. Roosevelt says they apply everywhere in the world. Churehill says they do not apply to Inds.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

culture: has requested the farmers of the nation to consider the election of farm women as well as men, to county and community committees to administer the AAA farm program next year. The < AAA’s articles 9 association are being amended to .permit farm wives, as well as women farming/in their own name, to vote in the committee member’s elections and to hold office. This is, I think, million a fair recognition of the part women play in agricul: tural life. This is the season of the year when the fruit of the earth always seems to me more abundant than at any) other time. The baskets of purple grapes which one

_ sees by the roadside, and the apples and sickle pears| " which one can pick up in any orchard, are very pleas‘and to eat. But one can enjoy, almost as much, the au

smell of the fruit as one walks through an orchard. The seems to bring it out ‘and, just as a straw-

in the strawherry bed has a|°®! eat 1 ihdours, a0 the Seat ai ;

By Ernie Pyle |

It was an old, old plies; probably had been going for a hundred years, You went back through a long}

He turned)

Istallmont Uiskivade Where, How?

OUT OF THE clear sky, from a commonwealth fe cynical pacifists bickering among ourselves over the Tela- | tive values of various systems of economic and social control, we found ourselves a nation engaged in the grim busi-' } * .mess of war. Neither intellectually, spiritually, emotion- y

ally, nor physically were we prepared.

men.

Mr. Ziff

war is brought to us. hind their Maginot line alone indicates the utter

madness of such a policy, and it may be taken for granted that no one would seriously advocate it. we If on the other hand we plan to utilize this vast body of men for a series of offensive operatone. a whole host of new problems instantly arises. They must be transported together with all the materiel, equipment, food and medicines they will require. This brings up the question of ship-bottoms which: we do not have, as well as the existence of a safe supply line which we certainly do not possess. : . -If We Invade Europe

THE TRANSPORTATION System on whith any planned offensive must rest is critical. German. submarines have increased in the Atlantic by over six times in one year. By the end of 1941, the Nazis had managed to sink some 8,300,000 gross ‘tons of merchant shipping. By the summer of 1942, the ‘rate of loss by: sinkings continued to increase materially. The American shipbuilding program, optimistically placed at figures well above 10,000,000 gross tons for 1943, can be hardly expected this year to equal the rate of loss by sinkings. Despite the governing realities we are being urged by a rising tide of public opinion, as well as by the demands of our fighting ally, Russia, into an unlimited offensive. It is demanded that we send .tanks, planes, and men to Australia, to Africa, to various points in’ Eurape—to, in short, carry the war to the enemy by a great land offensive. Fighting a modern war is largely a matter of logistics. If, therefore, we are thinking in terms of - invading Europe, we must "deal

WOODEN BARREL COMES INTO OWN

New Yorkers Sells Nelson An Idea to Save Many

Tons of Steel.

By DANIEL M. KIDNEY 3 Times Staff Writer: j WASHINGTON, Sept. 15—A saving of approximately a million tons of steel annually, plus the salvaging of that much or more, was predicted today as a result of a WPB order prohibiting the further use of steel barrels for shipping. The estimate was made by Armand Hammer, New York, who| has been trying to get. WPB to issue | such an order since March. Mr. Hammer is president of the Milltown (N. J.) Cooperage Co. He came here to sell Washington| officialdom on the idea of booming

stop wasting steel. In the six-month process he completely convinced WPB Chairman|

| Donald M. Nelson, who signed the

order last night.

wooden barrel linings to ‘pass the rigid tests provided by the bureau of standards.

‘wooden-barrel business will shift from a 40-per cent to a full-time sapacity and produce around 31

replace those of steel.

shout, this WPB order, Mr. Hammer His view yas supported by ‘WilB. Ziff ;

the wooden barrel as one way tof In the interim he perfected] Mr. Hammer is hopeful that the

Bice Sos Fen, _ 1 I million tons of steel is the big point

In.our great sluggish attempt to face the rapier-like : thrust of an enemy to whom war and con- = quest are the business of life, we have turned our whole economy upside down, ; We are making a prodigious effort to . remedy the terrible weakness of our situation, and for this purpose we are seeking “to throw together great armies. The talk is now of some 8,000,000 to 13,000,000

Just how are we going to use this huge pyramiding mass of soldiers? Is it! these semi-barbaric places with ‘meant primarily for defensive operations? If this is true, it presupposes that we are going to sit quietly by until the The experience of the French be-

with the fact that Germany has approximately 9,000,000 men under arms, of which only a few million are actively: engaged on the eastern front. : "It is true that the mere possession of numbers is not in itself decisive. But magnificent assaults by smaller forces depend on ferocity, determination, organization and mobility. They invaria- : bly involve a dynamic force which strikes a stagnant and dechying mass. ; es 2 2

Enemy Well Prepared

ACTUALLY THE dynamics, or=ganization and experience may be presumed to. be not on our side,

but on that of our enemies, whose quality in” personnel and equipment may hardly be minimized with safety. It is, in fact, we who would have the immense problem of equipping, training and officering an army which would presumably arrive at its bridgeheads raw, green, untested in actual warfare. They would face a numerous enemy armed to the teeth with every type of weapon modern ina genuity and industry. can devise, who would be operating from interior lines, enabling him to strike with stunning rapidity and power against any point of the perimeter from which we might start operations. The enemy would have, moreover, superb supply lines, whereas we should be obliged to improvise in. every respect, with our task force dependent for survival on a line of communications which. must be at least described as brittle. Our convoy would be under perpetual attack by airplanes, undersea craft, and perhaps surface raiders as well. Granting that this gauntlet could be run successfully, there is little reason to . believe that a bridgehead can be retained even

'Scrap Vital to Victory," Smith Says In Answering Salvage Drive Questions

HOW BRITISH EXPEDITIONARY FORCES ANDO SMALL ARMIES WERE SCATTERED OVER THE GLOBE.

A WELL-HANDLED OFFENSIVE COULD ORQP "EGGS FROM ONE BASKET AT THE RIGHT PLACE AND RIGHT TIME TO BRING . VICTORY.

How the eggs of military power are scattered.

after it has been achieved. No comparison may be made with the successful Japanese assault on Malaya and Indies, since the Japs were abl come in against

. overwhelming superiority of ships, men and planes. In every case their air superiority was gained at once and was never less than twenty to one against the badly armed defenders. Quite a differént situstion obtains where an invading fleet en-

.ters an area heavily armed and

defended by a compact, populous, and industrialized nation skilled in the art of war.

Where Shall We Strike

IF, FOR EXAMPLE, our primary attack were to be aimed at Italy as has been suggested, from the instant our fleet of troopships

. entered Italian waters it would be

subjected to a continuous and pitiless bombardment from great swarms of killer-planes. In back

of this savage air fleet would be an Italian army of 3,000,000 men, fighting on its home grounds. In back of these, in turn, would be the German army sitting like a “huge tarantula on the Brenner pass. "If Hitler chose, he could allow the first contingent of Americans to enter the Mediterranean and even to establish themselves. When a sufficiently large force had been caught in this cul-de-sac, he could move down through Spain and close the back: door, thus in a single operation cutting off their communications and dooming them to death or surrender, ' The opportunities for holding a ‘bridgehead even on the northern Norway coast are fully as remote. The British, with complete control of the seas, could not do so after the Germans had once established air bases there. Nor-

way today is a tremendous fort-

ress, accessible only to hit-and-run invaders, and certainly to be the graveyard of any army which attempts to land and maintain itself. The situation in France and Spain is worse, since despite our wishful thinking these Latin governments are dedicated to active

The collection of scrap is vital to victory. We asked Dudley Smith, state salvage director, the questions we wanted to know about the drive. They follow:

Q—What is the need for a scrap collection. campaign? | A==If the public does not pitéh in immediately and supply the steel mills with scrap metal, there will be a definite slowdown in war production. The steel mills average only a 15 to 30-day supply at present. - ® = 8 Q—What kind of scrap do. need? A=The critical need is for iron and steel scrap. All scrap metals

|»

been siipped to the mills if the scrap is so badly needed? .A—Junk yards appear to be overloaded with scrap mainly because they are processing and shipping points, Scrap cannot be shipped to mills in the mixed and miscellaneous form it is brought “into the yard, but must be cut up, sorted and piled for carload

and all scrap. rubber ana |

in the collection drive, 8 ee 0 Q—Who must supply this ‘scrap?

A—Every householder in both |

urban and rural areas.’ Q—How Is the scrap to be collected? : "A—In any one of three ways: 1 Call a Junie dealer to him.’ 2.:Call ane

| continue ‘until’ enough new blast

collaboration with the Nasi over= lords of Europe.

#

Air Protection Lacking

MORE IMPORTANT than any other single factor which can be brought to bear, the invading ,American force would lack air ‘ protection from the beginning. The range of fighter planes is extremely limited. Our army would have to depend on. aircraft carriers, which do not exist at present in sufficient numbers and which are themselves extremely vulnerable to attack.

Its heavy bombers would have to come from a great distance and would be without properly prepared landing fields, maintenance and repair facilities, stores of gasoline and replacement parts. It would be faced with the impossible task of establishing land air bases and achieving a hinterland from which to operate. Facing it would be an unending stream of ground-based planes massively outweighing the attackers.

A sober consideration of the problems involved forces the conclusion that, until such a time as the military strength of ®urope has been sapped by some cause extraneous to the direct process of invasion, German Europe is virtually invasion proof. Whatever doubts exist in reference to a successful assault on Europe are vastly amplified when the question of an attack on Japan arises. .. Here our lines of communication are fantastically: long in an area where we do not even have what purports to be naval superiority, and where we are inferior in armedvsirengin of every sort. } 2 = =

No Magic in Offense

THE UNITED NATIONS have entertained all sorts of useless propositions in relation to this war, all of them based on wishfulfillment and adherence to ideas which run counter to the realities. One of these was the blockade which was not only a failure, but ds now rapidly evolving into a counter-blockade, depriving us of ‘essential materials desperately needed for our own war effort, The fact of the matter is that

they are able with the handicapped persons who are given jobs by them. The charities. then sell the graded scrap to dealers who further process it and ship it to the mills. ' The revenues they receive from sale of; semi‘processed scrap go to payment

Q—When: will the scrap; drive end?

of raw material supply are recaptured. As to scrap iron and steel, the intensive drive must.

furnaces are in operation to meet

A—Tt cannot end until the war ; . ends and. America’s world. sources

- we are rapidly becoming a haves not nation. This is one of the face ! tors which must determine our military policy, which will force us to channel our energies in 8, type of strategy which exacts the | utmost advantage from our pes culiar geographical position as well as from our remarkable ine - dustrial talents and facilities. . The dullest niind by this time rejects the plan that we sit quiets ly waiting for the war to be brought to us. It is now pretty well recognized all around that the only way to end the war is to take the offensive somewhere, somee how. While we must build to the limit of our capacity, we are compelled to - strike quickly vigorously with what we diready possess. If we concede the initiae tive to the enemy, we will find ourselves rapidly pushed Backs ward out of one position after another. : Secretary Stimson expressed the : national mood when he stated that “we shall seize every oppor -tunity for attack and utilize every opportunity for surprise . .. to do otherwise would be the surest road for defeat, " This mekes— sense.

: ££ Resources Being Drained | - THE ONLY THING that does

. not make sense is the means we

‘are utilizing to achieve this end, These consist for the most: part of small expeditionary forces which have been dribbling out to all portions of the globe. They represent a Irittering away of “our national resources, , To matter how large our army might be, | Despite .the claims of - those who see in the offensive alone, ho matter how rashly undere taken, the open door to victory, we cannot: undertake such a measure until pure - calculation demonstrates that: a concentrae tion of such forces as we control is likely to produce victory. It may not be assumed for a momsment that there is some magic in the word offense which precludes the possibility of defeat. History is half compounded of offensives which failed, and the record is still far: from complete, William

ht, 1942, by b : Lio loan and Zi

(Co pubh ed by Duell, distributed by United : Feature Syndic

cate, Inc.)

TOMORROW—BIiz. war. Six more Marion county firms joined the honor roll of companies whose employees: dare contributing 10

per.cent or more of their salafies to

the war “effort through Purchasing war bonds. The six new firms were the ‘OPA office here, the Indiana .Insurance Co., Cooling-Grumme-Mumford Co.

|Inc., Food Display’ Cover, Inc. C. BE,

Trees & Co, Inc., and’ Swing Mase ter Products. The honor roll now {totals 166. . "The OPA office led the group with purchases totaling 18 per cent of the payroll

RIVER CREST cic - GROUP WILL MEET

The River “Crest Civic association meets: at: 7:30: p. m. today at the

civic improvements made by the

{eity.

HOLD EVERYTHING :